SAVE THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE

OPEN LETTER

We, the undersigned, are strongly concerned about the possible demise of the Council of Europe, which can take place very soon.

In response to Russia's illegal annexation of the Crimea and military aggression in Eastern Ukraine the Council of Europe suspended the voting rights of the Russian delegation. In its turn, Russia has turned to blackmail, having suspended membership fees to the Council of Europe and boycotting participation in the Parliamentary Assembly.

In order to triumphantly return to the PACE in January next year without implementing demands contained in a number of PACE resolutions, Russia and its supporters decided to act by the principle: if you can not change the policy of the Council of Europe, change its rules. If changes to the current sanctions rules are made, it will be virtually impossible to apply sanctions in the future AGAINST ANY MEMBER STATE.

Such changes, resulting in the unconditional return of Russia to PACE, will have the following negative impact on the Council of Europe and situation with human rights in Europe:

1) by allowing Russia to succeed in blackmailing, the CoE will compromise and discredit itself. A weak Council of Europe will lose its authority and influence in those parts of Europe where it is needed the most;

2) without the capacity to apply sanctions, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe will become a toothless organization, stripping itself of the only tool which could motivate an offender of the CoE's declared values - democracy, human rights and rule of law - to correct its policies;

3) it could trigger a full-scale crisis in the organization.

We call upon the ruling elites of all CoE Member States not to allow the demise of the organization. History will judge harshly those who give in to blackmail from undemocratic societies where the rule of force is above the rule of law.

Signed by: Toomas Hendrik Ilves, fourth president of Estonia (2006-2016) Petras Auštrevičius, Member of the , Lithuania Eitvydas Bajarunas, Ambassador-at-Large for Hybrid threats, Lithuanian MFA, Andrius Kubilius, Member of Parliament, Prime Minister of Lithuania (1999-2000, 2008-2012) Beatriz Becerra, Member of the European Parliament, vice-chair of the European Parliament Subcommittee on Human Rights, Spain Rebecca Harms, Member of the European Parliament, Germany Anna Maria, Corazza Bildt, Member of the European Parliament, Ana Gomes, Member of the European Parliament, Portugal František Kopřiva, Deputy, Czech Pirate Party, Representative to PACE, Czech Republic Jan Lipavsky, Member of the Parliament, Chamber of Deputies, Czech Republic Werner Schulz, former MP and MEP, Germany Hanne Severinsen, Danish Helsinki Committee, Former MP and PACE, Denmark Marieluise Beck, Former Bundestag Member, Germany Danylo Lubkivsky, Former Deputy Foreign Minister, Ukraine Markus Meckel, Former Foreign Minister of the GDR; Vors. Stiftungsrat Bundesstiftung Aufarbeitung, Germany Paweł Kowal, Former member of the European Parliament, Poland

Also signed by: Hannes Adomeit, Senior fellow, Institute for Security Policy, UKIEL, Germany Willem Aldershoff, former head of unit, European Commission, Analyst international affairs, Belgium Jessikka Aro, Journalist, Finland Anders Åslund, Senior Fellow, Atlantic Council, Swedish citizen, resident in the USA Dalia Bankauskaite, Head of the Media program at the Vilnius Institute for policy analysis, Lithuania Kamil Basaj, Info Ops Project Manager, CEO at @Disinfo_Digest, Poland Steven Blockmans, Senior research fellow, CEPS, Belgium Olaf Boehnke, Advisor, Alliance of Democracies, Germany Tim Bohse, Political Scientist, Germany Simon Bracey-Lane, Research Fellow, Institute for Statecraft, UK Aleksandar Brezar, Editor, National RTV of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHRT), Bosnia and Herzegovina Pascal Bruckner, philosopher, France Simas Čelutka, Head of European Security Programme at Vilnius Institute for Policy Analysis, Lithuania Iulian Chifu, Professor, researcher; Conflict Prevention and Early Warning Center Bucharest, Romania Carmen Claudín, Associate senior researcher CIDOB, Spain Evan O'Connell, European Affairs commentator, France Halyna Coynash, Kharkiv Human Rights Group, Ukraine Eugene Czolij, Ukrainian World Congress, President, Canada Haroldas Daublys, Head of Lithuanian Riflemen's Union's support group for Ukraine, Lithuania Danilo Elia Rai, Public broadcaster of / Journalist, Italy Urve Eslas, Adjunct fellow, CEPA, Estonia Yevhen Fedchenko, Stopfake.org co-founder, Ukraine André Fesiak, Independent Researcher, France Petr Fojtík, Analyst, Czech Pirate Party, Czech Republic Roland Freudenstein, policy director at the Martens Center for European Studies, Belgium Ralf Fuecks, Center for Liberal Modernity, Director, Germany Anna Garmash, Head of “Ukraine Action” (NGO), France Alyona Getmanchuk, director, New Europe Center, Ukraine Anke Giesen, Lecturer, Germany Paul Goble, Former US Government Specialist on the Non-Russian Peoples of the Formber Soviet Space, USA George Grabowicz, Professor, Harvard University, United States Gustav Gressel, Senior Policy Fellow; European Council on Foreign Relations, Germany Iulian Groza, Executive Director, Institute for European Policies and Reforms, Moldova Pavel Havlicek, Analyst at Association for International Affairs (AMO) in Prague, Czech Republic Berta Herrero, MEP Advisor, European Parliament, Spain Maryna Iaroshevych, Director of the Ukrainian World Congress Mission to International Organizations, Belgium Jakub Janda, Director, European Values Think-Tank, Czech Republic Kornely Kakachia, Georgian Institute of Politics, Georgia Julia Kazdobina, Head, Ukrainian Foundation for Security Studies, Ukraine Tamar Kintsurashvili, Director, Media Development Foundation (MDF), Georgia Lino Klevesath, political scientist, Germany Jana Kobzova, Advisor, Alliance of Democracies, Belgium Petr Kolář, Občané pro - Citizens for Czech Republic Peter Koller, The Greens, Germany Lyudmyla Kozlovska, President of the Open Dialogue Foundation, Belgium Jacek Kucharczyk, President, Institute of Public Affairs, Poland Kostiantyn Kvurt, Head of Board at Internews Ukraine, Ukraine Philippe De Lara, assistant professor of political science at Paris 2 university, France Marius Laurinavicius, Senior expert, Vilnius Institute for Policy Analysis, Lithuania John Lough, Associate Fellow, Russia & Eurasia Programme, Chatham House, the United Kingdom Jeff Lovitt, New Diplomacy, Chair, UK and Czech Republic Oleksiy Makukhin, Ukraine Crisis Media Center, Ukraine Oleksandra Matviychuk, Head of Center for Civil Liberties, Ukraine Daniel Mazur, Project Manager; Charles University, Czech Republic Martin Mycielski, Correspondent, Gazeta Wyborcza, Belgium James Nixey, Head, Russia and Eurasia Programme, Chatham House Ghia Nodia, Chairman, Caucasus Institute for Peace, Democracy and Development (CIPDD), Georgia Robert van der Noordaa, investigative journalist, the Netherlands Malvin Nygård, businessman, Norway Oxana Pachlovska, Professor, University of , Italy–Ukraine Massimiliano Di Pasquale, Journalist and writer, Italy Tetiana Pechonchyk, Human Rights Information Center, the head of board, Ukraine Nicolas De Pedro, Senior fellow, Institute for Statecraft, Spain Christian Pieper, Judge, Germany Iryna Pieper, Teacher, Germany Tetiana Pushnova, Independent media consultant, former Chief Producer of international TV Channel UKRAINE TODAY, Ukraine Antje Rempe language teacher; president of the Partnerschaftsverein Charkiw-Nürnberg, Germany Igor Reshetnyak, Researcher, EPFL, Switzerland Ben Robinson, Senior Fellow, Institute for Statecraft, UK Giedrius Sakalauskas, Res Publica, Lithuania Olaf Saxegaard, Consultant, Norway Alya Shandra, editor, Euromaidan Press, Ukraine Anton Shekhovtsov, Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, Ukraine Kristian Magnus Skarsvåg, IT consultant, Norway Maria Slesazeck, DRA e.V., Germany Vladimir Socor, Senior Fellow, Jamestown Foundation, USA / Germany Susan Stewart, German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP), Germany Alice Stollmeyer, Executive Director, Defending Democracy, Belgium Dovile Sukyte, Policy Analyst, Eastern Europe Studies Centre, Lithuania Sergiy Sydorenko, Editor, European Pravda, Ukraine Joanna Szostek, Lecturer, University of Glasgow, United Kingdom Wolfgang Templin, Publicist, Germany Lasha Tughushi, Chairman of the Georgian national platform, EaP Civil Society Forum, Georgia Andreas Umland, Institute for Euro-Atlantic Cooperation, Ukraine Reinhard Weißhuhn, Robert-Havemann-Gesellschaft, Germany Robert Werner, CEO, Germany Kataryna Wolczuk, Associate Fellow, Chatham House, United Kingdom Anna Yavorska, Advocacy Officer, Open Dialogue Foundation, Belgium Volodymyr Yermolenko, philosopher, journalist, editor at UkraineWorld.org, Ukraine Borys Zakharov, Humanitarian Studio Khvylia, Head of the Board, Ukraine Sonja Adelheid, Germany Bjørn Johan Berger, Norway Anzhela Prazdnichnykh, Belgium Malvin Nygård, Norway Dr. Ječmínek Jan Martin, Czech Republic Antonina Demenko, Norway Even Jahr, Norway Jaroslav Froněk, Czech Republic Irina Loaberg, Norway Ondřej Moravčík, Czech Republic